The Role of Anticyclonic Eddies in the Arctic Halocline

北冰洋的盐跃层往往将海洋表面的海冰与温暖的大西洋水流带入海洋的热量隔离开来。因此，这种盐跃层结构或持久性的变化将对北极海冰覆盖的变化速度产生重要影响，从而对全球气候产生重大影响。这种盐跃层是如何维持的是一个悬而未决的问题，但有一种理论强烈地暗示了北冰洋周围大陆架的冷水以涡流的形式横向流动。提供了一些基础来调查最近在北冰洋加拿大盆地观察到的大量浅涡旋的来源、动力学和在盐跃层中的作用。主要研究人员打算通过分析最近的测量、动态过程研究以及在新测量的背景下分析历史数据来实现这一点。来自新开发的冰系留剖面仪(ITP)的数据使对涡旋的全面分析成为可能。一系列的国际海洋计划目前正在返回加拿大盆地大部分地区所有季节的上层海洋温度和盐度的持续观测结果。对这些数据的初步分析表明，涡旋是加拿大盆地盐跃层的普遍特征，高分辨率的ITP采样可以很好地解决这一问题。

Timmermans 0713837WHOIThe halocline of the Arctic Ocean tends to isolate the sea ice on the surface of the ocean from the heat carried into the ocean with flows of warm Atlantic Water. Changes in the structure or persistence of this halocline will, thus, have an important influence on the rate of change of sea ice cover in the Arctic and, consequently, global climate. How this halocline is maintained is an open question, but one theory strongly implicates the lateral flux of cold waters, in the form of eddies, from the shelves surrounding the Arctic Ocean.Funds are provided to investigate the origin, dynamics, and role in the halocline of the large number of shallow eddies recently observed in the Arctic Ocean's Canada Basin. The principal investigators intend to accomplish this by analysis of recent measurements, dynamical process studies, and analysis of historical data in the context of the new measurements. Data from the newly developed Ice-Tethered Profiler (ITP) makes possible a comprehensive analysis of the eddies. An array of ITPs currently is returning sustained observations of upper-ocean temperature and salinity from a substantial region of the Canada Basin over all seasons. The preliminary analysis of these data has shown eddies to be a prevalent feature of the Canada Basin halocline that can be well-resolved by the high-resolution ITP sampling.